NEW YORK - Rudy Giuliani read a beloved Christmas story to youngsters in Harlem yesterday, assuring them that Santa Claus is alive and well. He said he, too, is in good health after last week's scare.
"I'm perfectly healthy. I don't have cancer," Giuliani told reporters after his annual reading of "A Visit From St. Nicholas" at New York's Hale House, a residence for needy children.
Giuliani, who had prostate cancer seven years ago, was hospitalized last week in St. Louis after suffering what he described as a headache so severe his campaign plane turned back less than 10 minutes after takeoff.
The former New York mayor canceled some events but was back campaigning in New Hampshire over the weekend, where he told reporters he had been tested and given a clean bill of health.
In response to renewed questions yesterday, Giuliani said his prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, level was measured just three weeks ago and was "zero or negligible." High PSA levels can mean cancer. He said his doctor would issue a full report soon.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In Iowa, Dodd packs gifts for National Guard troops
CARROLL, Iowa - Most of the presidential candidates took a brief holiday break from Iowa, but Democrat Chris Dodd remained in the state and spent part of Christmas Eve packing items for National Guard troops.
The Connecticut senator and his wife, Jackie, joined local volunteers in a Carroll park to assemble the packages, which will be shipped to Iowa troops overseas.
Campaign spokeswoman Taylor West said Dodd has a tradition of taking part in such work during the holidays. "When he's in Connecticut, he always does service projects around the holidays, and he wanted to bring that tradition to Iowa," West said.
After assembling the packages, Dodd and his family were returning to their rented house in Des Moines to celebrate Christmas.
Dodd, who has moved his family to Iowa to focus on the state's leadoff precinct caucuses, was the only candidate with campaign events planned in the state yesterday or today. A flood of candidates will return tomorrow for a final sprint to the Jan. 3 caucuses.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Woman with lung disease pushes on healthcare
DES MOINES - In October of last year, Kathy Stangl received a devastating prognosis: Doctors told her she had only a few months to live. She's still around and doing what comes naturally to Iowans - meeting presidential candidates.
"I just think we have a unique opportunity here. It's a rare privilege to talk to everybody running," said Stangl, a 56-year-old mother of two from Des Moines who has an incurable lung disease. "I see the caucuses as a big round-robin open-table job interview. Why should we hesitate to ask any questions?"
Stangl hasn't hesitated, attending nearly 50 events with presidential hopefuls from both parties and talking one-on-one with several. She tells them about her illness and gives her pitch for directing more healthcare dollars toward research, early intervention, and prevention.
It's not that she's a single-issue voter, but Stangl said people should consider changes to the healthcare system, and she wants more to be aware of a disease that seems likely to kill her.
At most events, she wears a T-shirt emblazoned with the question: Can You Say lymphangioleiomyomatosis. The shirt also notes the website for a foundation offering information.
"It's a hard road," she said. "It just isn't on doctors' radar screens. We're kind of like where breast cancer was 100 years ago."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In video, Clinton commends troops for bravery, heroism
The woman who wants to be the next commander in chief sent a holiday message yesterday to the military, especially service members in Iraq and Afghanistan she praised as "brave and heroic."
In a video posted on her campaign website, Hillary Clinton said Americans of "all political persuasions" pray for the safe return of US troops. While the message is for the most part decidedly uncontroversial, she does throw in along with a "Happy New Year," her hope that 2008 "will be the year when many of you will finally get to come home."
Clinton, who voted to authorize the war in Iraq, has now positioned herself in the Democratic mainstream in calling for a phased pullback of troops from Iraq, while keeping some to hunt down insurgents and protect US diplomats.
Clinton, who is in a pitched battle with Barack Obama and John Edwards in Iowa and with Obama in New Hampshire, rose to the top of national polls through this year in part by establishing herself on national security issues - a key hurdle for the most serious female presidential candidate in the country's history.
FOON RHEE
Thompson is absent from website holiday message
Republican Fred Thompson, among the last of the presidential candidates with a holiday video message, doesn't appear in his version. Instead, the video on his campaign website is a montage of photos and images of members of the US military serving in Iraq and elsewhere. It is also a plea to Americans to keep them in their thoughts.
"This holiday season, let us reflect on their courage and sacrifice," it says.
FOON RHEE
Paul's new ad calls him a 'defender of freedom'
Ron Paul has a new television ad that calls him a "defender of freedom" on taxes, abortion, and gun owner rights.
The spot includes a photo of Paul as an Air Force flight surgeon, says he delivered 4,000 babies, and lauds his record in Congress voting against tax hikes and pay raises for representatives and senators. "Protecting our God-given freedom," the announcer concludes.
FOON RHEE
